Who, What, When, Where, How & Why

Cat shelter version 2018

Here are some shots of my current cat shelter. It has been very cold this year so far, and my walk-in contraption works great. The outside cats enter from the top of the storage-box shelter roof. Two cats live in this structure, Peggy and Cat Henry.

The only one that I know actually lives here is Peggy, and Cat Henry just moved in recently. These cats are all descendents of feral cats, but the basic problem was solved by the APL no-kill neuter/spay/release policy.

The relatively few
“outside” cats ( not really feral any more) are survivors from about five years ago when the APL did their round-up. These cats have been around for a long time. The neutering/spaying is the key to the project…once the females are “fixed” the problem of being overrun by kittens is solved.

Peggy the black n white, yes, she is very tame; Cat Henry I can pet and he is also very tame. The calico, Dottie, lives in the house but she likes to visit the outside guys. Please note that I do not try to pet or otherwise approach raccoons…I’m not THAT mad!

I’m happy to hear that you are wary of ‘coons. In NY we used to have them come up on the back porch, as fearless as anything. They were much too used to humans. I can’t remember why they were there — maybe because we had used the grill and spilled food. In the mountains, we’ve seen one dead one. They have plenty of food in the woods and keep their distance from us.

Raccoons are vegetarians, they are so dainty, they sit back on their haunches and take small morsels of food and eat it neatly. I don’t go out when one is here, common sense tells me they aren’t really pets.

My personal observation has been that the wild critters get along well with the cats. I make an effort to keep out the wild ones because mainly it is against the law to feed “wild” animals…which does not include cats. Deer especially cause huge problems, but they don’t even approach my premises…usually.

Key is that these cats are long-time residents, not feral any longer. The wild animals get along fine except for run-ins with cars. There are problems with the deer eating crops, (this is a semi-farm area) getting hit by cars, etc. No hunting allowed here.

I mentioned that we have no hunting here…but our city limits are literally within sight across the road into villages that DO allow hunting. The highway cuts through our back property, which created a sort of sanctuary with fallen trees and meadow land. So the horse farm, my daughter’s, and my places occupy a very long frontage which is no longer farm land. My late husband used to grown all kinds of crops which he sold at a stand in the front of the yard. I should dig out some photos, he maintained a lovely farm. I built my new house in the middle of the cabbage patch…I often wonder what he would think about that. 🙂

Cabbage patch blogger! I can’t laugh. We found out our house sits where there was a pig farm. No wonder you see wild animals, with a de facto sanctuary on your property! I’d love to see a photo of your husband’s farm stand. My dad always had outrageous numbers of tomato plants. Mom often said he should put tomatoes out on the sidewalk to sell them. Instead, she’d take a basket full to church and tell people to help themselves.

That might be a fun blog name. I have a lot of farm pics. When we got married in 1972 I didn’t believe him when he told me he planted something like 10,000 cabbage and cauliflower plants; then we dug many and planted them with our two-seater planter….great fun! I was soon a believer. Bob planted all sorts of things…even crops that didn’t really grow in Ohio, like tobacco, and once…cotton; apple orchard, and sweet corn, I’ll find some pics and post them.

Now, those pictures go back to the physical photo albums, which the kids and grandkids have pored over so much that many of the snapshots are falling out. I suppose they are on slides, I’ll see what I can do.

We saw many more ‘coons in NY than in NC. The NY ones were trashy, literally. They raided our garbage cans routinely. I met a possum in a large parking lot where I was walking near the water (an inlet from the Long Island Sound). It pretended I didn’t exist, and I returned the favor.

The only marsupial in North America? I read someplace. Last night a raccoon dropped in for supper, she was nervous about entering the space which is pretty much closed in, and kept looking at us inside the sliding door. The resident cats just sat up on the shelf and watched the ‘coon. I haven’t seen it for a long time.

I did catch a raccoon lounging on my swing a couple years ago. The swing is part of my “shelter” and in past years the main one, which was very rudimentary. I actually have some photos of raccoons or opossums eating out of the food dish with kittens…grown cats are more reticent.

Now that it has warmed up some I can go out and clear up some snow issues, and tie up the literal loose ends. These particular cats are not strays, they live either here, next door, or next door to that at the horse barn.

The animal protection people have a no-kill policy; they round up miscellaneous cats and trap them, take them to the Center and neuter/spay them. Then release them back where they come from. If there are any “real” strays they get naturalized.

So, did you hear about #45s fling with the porn star/stripper Stormy Daniels? He paid her hush money, but she is “telling all” now anyway. The idiots among my countrymen don’t care of course. I wonder what Melania has to say about it….huh! However, I think that crossing The Donald is done at one’s own risk.

I agree, these structures are so cool I almost want to crawl in and hang curtains or something 🙂 I spent a lot of time up in a cherry tree as a kid, I used to sit up there and read magazines. To this day I love these little rustic hide-aways created likely by deer or other critters in our “sanctuary,” fallen trees and the area by our pond. My girlfriend and I used to crawl around in the tall, tall grassy weeds and create landmarks such as
Trafalgar Square …. god it has been like 75 years since my imagination was put to such good exercises! lol

Yeah, it hits suddenly. Mine hit while ex-husband, toddler and I were out in a shopping mall. There was a ramp that circled around this central area. Ex took toddler to the railing to look down and suddenly, bang, I thought I’d pass out with fear. I mean I knew nothing would happen but I could not move a single step towards that railing. 😦

We were at an old slave auction building (now a museum of slavery) that had a balcony on the second floor all the way around the building. I was in a panic to leave, and in some places forced to walk near the railing. I about died of fear until I finally reached the stairs to go down. Thinking about it now gives me chills.

Once when we were in Mexico at a Maya archeological site I was so taken with the main pyramid that I just had to climb up it…140 feet high. My husband was looking around for me and was astounded to see me half way up. When I got up to the top I remember thinking how in the world would I ever get back down…had a vision of a helicopter rescuing me. I know…I am a drama queen! (That is still my go-to dream get-away spot.)

oh I got down ok…once I got past about the second step of the pyramid I just walked down at an angle instead of straight. At the top of the pyramid is an old building of some sort, a little temple or something, and inside a niche there was a sleeping bat. Another climber had taken the bat from its perch and removed a tick that was in the bat’s mouth. ahem…

🙂 They were originally feral cats that were rounded up by the Animal Protection folks, neutered/spayed, and released into their original habitat IF welcome. We are part of a sort of “compound.” Once the “kitten problem” was solved by the APL it cut down on the population. My shelter is designed as much for my own convenience as theirs.

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I am a writer, photographer, historian, general know-it-all, have an opinion about everything...but flexibility is my strong suite, so my opinions change. Since I am old, broke, and out of condition, my adventures are mainly vicarious--in backpacks of other bloggers who let me tag along, and anything that happens in my back yard. Oh, I forgot...I'm a poet, old newspaper writer/reporter, student of all things. WELCOME to my blog!

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